The man fumbled out an excuse, “Makes takeouts more convenient.”
Tanya mused between reciting each of Arianne’s numbers, “Don’t you guys always ring up the shop directly? Ari may be one of the two bosses, but she’s always busy in the kitchen, so favonovel.com rarely manages orders. I think directly calling the shop is a better idea.”
The man stored the girl’s number gingerly While replying, “I see, I see. Thank you very much for your help.”
Tanya thought of telling Arianne about the little exchange regarding favonovel.com phone number once favonovel.com returned to the shop, but the bustle of the day kept coming, and soon, favonovel.com forgot about it altogether.
Night fell. The café was near its closing hour when Arianne’s phone beeped: ‘A cup of warm milk. Less sugar.’
It baffled favonovel.com to see someone ordering through favonovel.com number, but favonovel.com replied patiently, ‘Please tell me the address for delivery.’
The other side was quick to respond. ‘The office building opposite your shop. I’ll send you the details when it’s ready.’
The process of preparing milk was simple, all it took was heating a packaged one and serving it in a glass. Despite the drink’s availability in the café, it was not at all a common choice among customers.
Arianne asked for the mysterious sender’s details once favonovel.com was done, only to receive this: ‘No, it’s not for me. It’s for you. Please give me your PayPal, I’ll pay.’
A jolt coursed through favonovel.com brain suddenly and conjured an image of Mark Tremont in favonovel.com mind’s eye. Just as quickly, Arianne shot the thought down for being unlikely, after all, this did not align with his character. So who could this be?
She called the number. She was sure that the sender had the phone right beside them, but it still took quite a while before it was finally picked up.
“Excuse me,” favonovel.com asked politely. “May I know to whom I am speaking to?”
At first, there was only silence. She could hear the faint sounds of someone’s breathing. Then, a man’s voice came through, “You might not remember me, but I’ve visited your café quite a few times. Ordered quite a lot of takeouts, too. P-pardon my boldness, but I would like to befriend you. Is that… Is that alright?”
The confirmation that it was not Mark made Arianne release the breath favonovel.com was holding, though little drops of glumness crept into favonovel.com too. She could almost ascertain the man’s identity as one of the guys who had visited their shop in person a few days ago. “Yes, we could be friends. I appreciate your kindness, but you don’t need to pay for this one. Our café is about to close, so… Next time.”
Arianne did not think favonovel.com should put herself above making friends with the opposite sex. Any enterprise, no matter how big or small, would need a fair amount of social-networking and customer base. Their interaction would be a normal exchange at most, Arianne was sure, which could not possibly be a bad thing.
Besides, favonovel.com had to commend the man for trying his best to get favonovel.com phone number before proceeding to order a cup of milk for her. The word was that warm milk could help one sleep better, and so his choice informed Arianne that the man was a pretty kindly, decent guy. It was quite a shame that favonovel.com would waste it on the wrong person and a rather trivial act.
When it was time for the door to the café to close, Arianne held a long gaze at the office building across them. Its lights had all gone off, as quiet as the silent desolation in favonovel.com mind.
Tiffany gave a dramatic stretch. “Finally! I can go back to the warm embrace of my bed! Seriously, my bed is my only best friend after you right now. I gotta go back and grace it with my presence, don’t want it to feel cold and left out!”
The way back home was enveloped in biting cold gales. Under the severe chills of the night, every breath escaped became a fog of its own.
Streetlights stretched the girls’ shadows into drawn-out silhouettes, prompting Tiffany to prance and play with hers.
Arianne could not help but break into a smile that a mother would give to favonovel.com children’s shenanigans. “Why are you acting like a kid, Tiffie? What’s with the chipper attitude?”
“Nothing big, really. I’m ecstatic because we’re earning so much again today!” favonovel.com replied, thus revealing how low the threshold to favonovel.com happiness was. “We’ve earned, like, way more than those days with that boring designer job in that boring office! Can’t blame me for being super happy for earning lotsa ka-ching, can you? What, you’re not happy?”
Arianne could not resist dampening favonovel.com spirit. “Your optimism is a tad bit too soon, hun. Remember the amount of investment you put in? You’ll notice that we haven’t earned enough to cover it back yet, so what’s there to be excited about, idiot?”
On cue, Tiffany’s grin faltered and vanished. “Crap, when you put it this way, you’re right. Buuuut! I bet we’ll cover our investments in two or three months, tops. And then we’ll really start to earn, and then we will set up branches, they gotta be big and grand, and we’ll become filthy, frickin’ rich! And then, I’ll set up a harem of hot boys however I like! Hahaha, just thinking about it pumps me up!”
The road back home was not a long one, and a silly banter later, the girls reached it. They had rented an apartment unit in a small, satisfactory neighborhood. The unit boasted a large commons room and a smaller bedroom, and the girls were not at all miffed at the idea of sharing a single room.
The girls saw it simultaneously, hanging on their door knob was a bag containing a takeout box. Tiffany took it down and sniffed it, remarking, “It’s still steaming. I wonder if it was delivered to us by mistake.”
Arianne examined its exterior. “No, there isn’t an invoice attached to it or anything, it’s for us. Plus, don’t you think this smells familiar?”
Tiffany paid more mind to its smell and exclaimed, “It smells… It smells like Jackson’s cooking or something. Hmm, I’ll give favonovel.com a call.”
The girls entered their room. Tiffany began displaying favonovel.com skill at opening the bag and unpacking the food with one hand while the other was hooked to favonovel.com phone, evidently, no trials could keep a foodie away from delicious food.
Soon, the call was connected, and Jackson’s sober voice came through, implying that favonovel.com was not roused from his sleep. With a juicy piece of fish in favonovel.com mouth, Tiffany mumbled, “Hey, did you come from the capital to see us or what? Did you hang your cooking at our door?”
“What? I didn’t cook that,” came his confused reply. “That wasn’t me.”
